This invention relates to multi-player interactive computer games, methods, and apparatus for use in a performance management and learning environment to interact with business processes and systems.
Computer games are a very popular form of contemporary entertainment. More recently, multi-player computer games have become popular. In this type of computer game, a player runs a computer game version on his local computer. This game version acts as a client that can connect to a central server; generally, this connection is made over the Internet. In general, both the client and server computers maintain a shared representation of the state of a virtual environment in which the game is played. Consequently, these games are typically called networked virtual environment, or net-VE, games. Changes made by a player to his local client representation are sent to the server, and then the server propagates those changes to each of the other clients. Similarly, changes made by the server to the server-side simulation are also propagated to all connected clients. This multi-player arrangement allows a player not only to interact with the virtual environment, but also to interact with the virtual characters controlled by other players.
Though digital computer games are usually thought of as consumer entertainment, games to teach and learn have gained early success, especially in the military. The military's use of computer games in learning environments is driving the use of games to teach and learn. This learning environment can be viewed as a combination of Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMOGs), Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing games (MMORPGs), distributed simulators, computer aided instruction, and learning systems. Computer games are emerging to support military and national defense applications, and will likely be used more often in the business sector in the future. Thus, there is a need for more engaging, educational interactions between employees and enterprise processes.